Fw 190 A-8 First Aid Pack

[Leo Etgen]

Hello

I have read that as was the case with Fw 190 D-9 fighters the late production Fw 190 A-8 fighters did not have the first aid pack installed on the rear starboard fuselage and judging from various photographs it appears that this indeed is true. Discerning such, though, is quite difficult due to the lack of high quality images of this area which show the presence or lack thereof regarding the associated panel clearly. It appears to me that among the fighters that did not have the first aid pack included are:

Fw 190 A-8 "Black <<" (W.Nr. 171 189) of Stab II./SG 2
Fw 190 A-8 "Brown 6" (W.Nr. 175 140) of 7./JG 26
Fw 190 A-8 "Black 10" (W.Nr. 380 352) of 2./JG 301
Fw 190 A-8 "White 2" (W.Nr. 380 400) of 5./JG 4
Fw 190 A-8 "Red 11" (W.Nr. 681 992) of 10./JG 301

However, this could easily be in error due to my poor abilities to identify such details through photographs. Would anyone be able to provide additional information as to the time period and/or werknummer blocks in which the first aid pack began to not be included? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Horrido!

Leo